Late medieval battle axe head from the monastery complex near the village of Voden, Yambol district

Abstract

This paper aims to present the head of a battle axe found in the monastery complex near the village of Voden, Yambol district. The long, narrow, crescent-shaped blade, the long socket and the small opening at the heel for additional attachment to the shaft link this specimen to the Late Medieval weapons known as “bardiche”. These weapons are widely represented in Western European art between the second half of the 13th and the first half of the 14th c. and will become a prototype of the far better known and widespread in the 16th – 17th c. in Eastern Europe, especially in Russia, “bardiche”. The long socket ending in a conical tip with a bud links the axe from Voden to some maces, pointing to its Balkan-Byzantine origin and allowing the item to be dated to the 14th – 15th c.